iPhone 5: Why It Was Cancelled

There were widespread rumors that Apple was going to release the iPhone 5 this fall -- rumors that turned out to be incorrect. A new report claims to explain what happened to this model.

One of the most notable features of this cancelled smartphone would have been a 4-inch display. This would not only have been physically larger than the 3.5-inch screen in the iPhone 4S, but apparently would have had a higher resolution than on previous Apple smartphones as well, according to an unconfirmed report in Business Insider.

Apple regularly touts the "Retina" screen that debuted on the iPhone 4 and is now on the iPhone 4S. This has such a high resolution that individual pixels are too small to see with the unaided human eye. Apparently, Steve Jobs, this company's former CEO, believed that enlarging the screen to 4 inches would require also increasing the number of pixels to retain this effect. 

It's this change in resolution that supposedly doomed the device. Just a few months before the launch, Jobs pulled the plug because he was worried about fragmenting the iOS market. Apps would have to be updated to support the new resolution, something that likely wouldn't happen to many older (or unprofitable) ones. Apple already asks developers to support two resolutions --  960 x 620 for smartphones and 1024 x 768 for the iPad -- and it allegedly decided adding a third was too many.

Other features that were reportedly going to be included in the iPhone 5 would have been a 10 megapixel camera and an aluminum back similar to the one in the iPad. The iPhone 4S has an 8 MP camera and a glass back. In addition, the Home button on the handset would have been a touchpanel rather than a physical button. 

So What's Next?
Apple may yet come out with a device called the iPhone 5, and it may have some of the features that were planned for the now-cancelled version. However, it seems unlikely it will have a larger, higher-resolution display, even though Steve Jobs is no longer the one making decisions at Apple.  

When this new smartphone is going to be released is a matter of much speculation and debate on the Internet. At least one unconfirmed report indicates that Apple intends to return to its practice of introducing new models in the summer, and it was only problems with the iPhone 5 that caused the company to launch the iPhone 4S in the fall.  

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